The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-11-08
BEAUTY IN THE BATH,

Constautinople Letter.
inst outside the limits Of Constantinople, up
in the Golden Horn, is Agt-Hamman Il bath fire.
quented by many ladies Of the highest position not
be lsc they have no baths of their own but he
cause thcg sure to meet their fenGS there with
out restriction and have a gool time. 1t has also
always been great lace for mothers to take their
1n,rria cable daughters and other mothers 20 to
choose bride for their sons, and, wives not
chosen for their mental but physical beauties alone
certainly this is the place to choose where beauty is
quite unadored, and therefore Of this bath we Will
speak.
The ladies arrive, each one attended by her own
personal servant, and another who bears very
subsan tial lunch basket and handsome gold
bordered bathing wrap. The eunuchs remain out
side or go away and come back at the hour the bath
is ended, as it occupies several hours.
PLUMP BEAUTIES IN THE BATH.
First the ladies are Invested of their clothing and
receive Grape sheet, which they drape about them
while they sit the regulation length of time in the
first ROOM During this time they chat with each
other, though not very Familiarity, and they keep up
the pretense of the drapery until they
reach and pass the next room, after
which the ssheet and modesty are
both thrown off, and with their abundant hair
streaming loose and unconfned they walk erect
into the last room as Eve did about the Garden of
Eden, and here they stretch themselves out upon
tie marble slabs while twoa attendants rub them and
lather them and pour hot water over them antil it
seems as if they would be boiled.
Each lady is laid upon u marble slab which is
Slightly inclined, and two attendants begin their
labors, one at the feet and the others at the head
and the use sort Of clay called pilo which raises
thick white ather, which sometimes grows several
inches thick. The attendants use nothing but this
soapy clay and their hands to cleanse their subjects
with, and they rub and knead and punch until it
seems they would reduce the flesh to
pulp, all the while leaving this lather to
accumulate until the bather looks like
a snowfall. Another kind of soap is used for the
hair and another again for the face but the latter
is always left to gather thick as the worker rubs and
tolls, the prespiration rolling in streams down her
own glistening body. Sometimes these attendants
are white sometimes black and some of the ladies
of fhe harem are as black as any negro in or own
country, as it is quite thing for a man to
make wife Of his Abyssinnian slave These inky
ladies wear the Turkish veil religiously as do the
white wives and indeed the color line is not drawn
closely at all in the Orient.
The Turkish bath is lighted from the roof and
through stained glass, and the Colored light falls
upon the forms laid out beneath with beautiful
effect. large fountain with deep basin stands
in the middle of this and numberless little
pipes throw Off sprays of perfumed water above the
slabs on which the ladies lay like animated snow
flakes, kicking and luealing when soap gets into
their eyes or mouths, or when the attend
ants tickle them unexpectedly. A little silver basin
stands at hand and after the ladies have soaked in
soap long enough they take quite hot water entire
ly too hot for anybody but Turkish woman, who
Is used to ii, and pour it gently over them, not
dashng the water, but softly emptying it, so that it
soon washes Off all the lather leaving the flesh rosy
and fresh. This pouring of water is continued
sometimes half an hour, and rubbing, rolling and
kneading of the body, airer which the lady is a
liberty TO plunge into the basin, if she wishes
among the other laughing and frolicking women
black and white minglng Unfortunately.